The immediate admission of Kansas as a Sl*itc. 



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SPEECH 

OF 

i. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, 



OF NEW YORK, 



m THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, APRIL 9, 1856. 



Wednesday, April 9, 1856. 

The special order of the day having been resumed, 

Mr. SEWARD addressed the Senate as fol- 
lows : 

Mr President : To obtain empire is easy 
and common ; to govern it well is difficult and 
rare indeed. I salute the Congress of the United 
States in the exercise of its most important func- 
tion — that of extending the Federal Constitution 
over added domains ; and I salute especially the 
Senate in the most august of all its manifold 
characters, itself a Congress of thirty-one free, 
equal, sovereign States, assembled to decide 
whether the majestic and fraternal circle shall be 
opened to receive yet another free, equal and 
sovereign State. The Constitution prescribes 
only two qualifications for new States, namely — 
a substantial civil community, and a republican 
Government. Kansas has both of these. The 
circumstances of Kansas, and her relations to- 
wards the Union, are peculiar, anomalous, and 
deeply interesting The United States acquired 
the province of Louisiana, (which included the 

f resent Territory of Kansas,) from France, in 
803, by a treaty, in which they agreed that its 
inhabitants should be incorporated into the Fed- 
eral Union, and admitted as soon as possible, 
according to the principles of the Constitution, 
to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, 
and immunities of citizens of the United States. 
Nevertheless, Kansas was in 1820 assigned as a 
home for an indefinite period to several savage 
Indian tribes, and closed against immigration 
and all other than aboriginal civilization, but not 
V without a cotemporaneous pledge to the Amer- 
ican people and to mankind that neitlier Slavery 
Onir involuntary servitude should be tolerated 
jtfuerein forever. In 1854 Congress directed a 
Removal of the Indian tribes, and organized and 
alpened. Kansas to civilization, but by the same 
^ict rescinded the pledge of' perpetual dedication 
fij' Freedom, and substituted for it another, 
lich declared that the [future] people of Kan- 



sas should be left perfectly free to establish or to 
exclude Slavery, as they should decide through 
the action of the Republican Government, which 
Congress modeled and authorized them to estab- 
lish, under the protection of the United States. 
Notwithstanding this latter pledge, when the 
newly associated people of Kansas, in 1855, were 
proceeding with the machinery of popular elec- 
tions, in the manner prescribed by Congress, to 
choose legislative bodies for the purpose of or- 
ganizing that republican government, armed 
bands of invaders from the State of Missouri en- 
tered the Territory, seized the polls, overpowered 
or drove away the inhabitants, usurped the elec- 
tive franchise, deposited false and spurious bal- 
lots without regard to regularity of qualification 
or of numbers, procured official certificates of the 
result by fraud and force, and thus created and 
constituted legislative bodies to act for and in 
the name of the people of the Territory. These 
legislative bodies afterward assembled, assumed 
to be a legitimate Legislature, set forth a code 
of municipal laws, created 'public offices and 
filled them with officers appointed for consider- 
able periods by themselves, and thus established 
a complete and effective foreign tyranny over the 
people of the Territory. These high-handed 
transactions were consummated with the express 
purpose of establishing African Slavery as a per- 
manent institution within the Territory by force, 
in violation of the natural rights of the people 
solemnly guaranteed to them by the Congress of 
the United States. The President of the United 
States has been an accessory to these political 
transactions, with full complicity in regard to 
the purpose for which they were committed. He 
has adopted the usurpation, and made it his own, 
and he is now maintaining it with the military 
arm of the Republic. Thus Kansas has been 
revolutionized, and she now lies subjugated and 
prostrate at the feet of the President of the 
United States, while he, through the agency of 
a foreign tyranny established within her borders, 
is forcibly introducing and establishing Slavery 



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61 



there, in coutempt and deOance of the organic 
law. These extraordinary transactions have been 
attended by civil commotions, in which property, 
life and liberty have been exposed to violence ; 
and these commotions still continue to threaten 
not only the Territory itself, but also the adja- 
cent States, with the calamities and disgraces of 
civil war. I am fully aware of the gravity of 
the charges against the President of the United 
States which this statement of the condition and 
relations of Kansas imports. I shall proceed, 
without fear and without reserve, to make them 
good. The maxim that a sacred vail must be 
drawn over the beginning of all Governments, 
does not hold under our system. I shall first 
call the accuser into the presence of the Senate, 
then examine the defenses which the President 
has made, and last, submit the evidences by 
■which he is convicted. The people of Kansas 
know whether these charges are true or false. 
They have adopted them, and, on the ground of 
the high political necessity which the wrongs 
they have endured, and are yet enduring, and 
the dangers throu^-h which they have already 
passed, and the perils to which they are yet ex- 
posed, have created, they have provisionally or- 
ganized themselves as a State, and that State is 
now here, by its two chosen Senators and one 
Eepresentative, standing outside at the doors of 
Congress, applying to be admitted into the Union 
as a means of relief indispensable for the purpo- 
ses of peace, freedom, and safety. This new 
State is the President's responsible accuser. The 
President of the United States, without waiting 
for the appearance of his accuser at the capital, 
anticipated the accusations, and submitted his 
defenses against them to Congress. The first 
one of these defenses was contained in his Annual 
Message, which was communicated to Congress 
on the 30th of December, 1855 I examine it. 
You shall see at once that the President's mind 
was ojipressed — was full of something too large 
and burdensome to be concealed, and yet too 
critical to be told. Mark, if you please, the 
Btate of the case at that time. So early as 
August, 1855, the people of Kansas had de- 
nounced the Legislature. They had at volun- 
tary elections chosen Mr. A. H. Eeeder to rep- 
resent them in the present Congress, instead of 
J. W. "Whitfield, who held a certificate of elec- 
tion under the authority of the Legislature. 
They had also, on the 23d day of October, 1855, 
by similar voluntary elections, constituted at 
Topeka an organic Convention which framed a 
Constitution lor the projected State They had 
also, on the 15th of December, 1855, at similar 
voluntary elections, adopted that Constitution, 
and its tenor was fully kuov^n. It provided for 
elections to be held throughout the new State on 
the lath of January, 1856, to fill the offices cre- 
ated by it, and it also required the Executive 
and Legislative officers, thus to ^ chosen, to as- 
Bcmble at Topeka on the 4th day of March, 1856, 
to inaugurate the new State provisionally, and 



to take the necessary means for the appointment 
of Senators, who, together with a Eepresentative 
already chosen, should submit the Constitution 
to Congress at an early day, and apply for the 
admission of the State of Kansas into the Union. 
All these proceedings had been based on the 
grounds that the Territorial authorities of Kan- 
sas liad been established by armed foreign usur- 
pation, and were, nevertheless, sustained by the 
President of the United States. A constitu- 
tional obligation required^the President " to give 
to Congress" in his Annual Message " informar 
tion of the state of the Union " Here is all 
" the information" which the President gave to 
Congress concerning the events in Kansas, and 
its relations to the Union." 

_ In the Territory of Kansas there have been acts prejudi- 
cial to good order ; but as yet none have occurred under cir 
cumstances to justify the interposition of tlie Federal Execu- 
tive. Ihat could only be in case of obstruction to Federal 
law, or of organized resistance to Territorial law, s<"-"imiiig 
the character of insurrection, which, if it sliould ccsur, it 
would be my duty promptly to cveicome and sui';,ress. I 
cherish the hope, however, that tlie occurrence of any such 
untoward event will be prevented by tlie sound sense of the 
people of tlie Territory, who, by its organic law, possessing 
the right to determine their own . omestic institutions, are 
entitled, while deporting themselves peacefully, to the free 
exercise of that right, and must be protected in the enjoy- 
ment of it, without interference on the part of the citizens 
of any of the States. 

This information ipiplies that no invasion, 
usurpation, or tyranny has been committed with- 
in the territory by strangers, and that the pro- 
visional State organization now going forward 
is not only unnecessary, but also prejudicial to 
good order, and insurrectionary. It menaces 
the people of Kansas with a threat, that the 
President will " overcome and suppress" them. 
It mocks them with a promise, that, if they 
shall hereafter deport themselves properly under 
the control of authorities by which they have 
been disfranchised, in determining institutions 
which have been already forcibly determined for 
them by foreign invasion, that then they must be 
protected against "interference by citizens of any 
of the States." The President, however, not 
content with a statement so obscure and unfair 
devotes a third part of the annual messacre to 
argumentative speculation bearing on the charac- 
ter of his accuser. Each State has two and no 
more Senators in the Senate of the United 
States. In determining the apportionment of 
Representatives in the House of Representatives / 
and in the Electoral Colleges among the States, < 
three-filths of all the slaves in any Stat« ar« / 
enumerated. 1'he slaveholding or non-slaveholcl' 
ing character of a State is determined, not (' 
the time of its admission into the Union as \ 
State, but at that earlier period of its politicff 
life in which, being called a territory, it ^ 
politically dependent on the United States, or cf 
some foreign sovereign Slavery is tolerated 
some of the States, and forbidden in othe. 
Affecting the industrial and economical systc; 
of the several States, as Slavery and Freed/ 
do, this diversity of practice concerning tl/ 
early worked out a corresponding diflerenos 



conditions, interests, and ambitions among the : 
Stales, and divided and arrayed tlicm into two , 
classes. The balance of political power between j 
those two classes in the federal system is sensi- 
bly affected by the accession of'any new State 
to either of them. Each State, therefore, 
watches jealously the settlement, growth, and 
inchoate slaveholding and non-slaveholding char- 
acters of territories which may ultimately come 
into the Union as States. It has resulted from 
these circumstances, that Slavery, in relations 
purely political and absolutely Federal, is an 
element which enters with more or less activity 
into many national questions of finance, of reve- 
nue, of expenditure, of protection, of free trade, 
of patronage, of peace, of war, of annexation, 
of defence, and of conquest, and modifies opin- 
ions concerning constructions of the Constitu- 
tion, and the distribution of powers between the 
Union and the several States, by which it is con- 
Btituted. Slavery, under these political and 
Federal aspects alone, enters into the transac- 
tions in Kansas, with which the President and 
Congress are concerned. Nevertheless, he dis- 
ingenuously alludes to those transactions in his 
defence, as if they were identified with that 
moral discussion of Slavery which he regards as 
odious and alarming, and without any other 
claim to consideration. Thus he alludes to the 
question before us as belonging to a " political 
agitation," " concerning a matter which consists 
to a great extent of exaggeration of inevitable 
evils, or over-zeal in social improvement, or mere 
imagination of grievance, having but a remote 
connection with any of the constitutional func- 
tions of the Federal Government, and menacing 

ty 

rity of the U 

ce manner the President as'isails and stig- 
matizes those who defend and maintain the 
cause of Kansas as " men of narrow views and 
sectional purposes," " engaged in those wild and 
chimerical schemes of social change which are 
generated one after another in the unstable 
minds of visionary sophists and interested agita- 
tors'' — " mad men, raising the storm of frenzy 
and fixction," " sectional agitators," " enemies of 
the Constitution, who have surrendered them- 
selves so far to a fanatical devotion to the sup- 
posed interests of the relatively few Africans in 
the United States as totally to abandon and dis- 
regard the interests of the twenty-five millions 
of Americans, and trample under foot the in- 
junctions of moral and constitutional obligation, 
and to engage in plans of vindictive hostility 
against those who are associated with them in 
the enjoyment of the common heritage of our 
free institutions." Sir, the President's defence 
on this occasion, if not a matter simply personal 
is at least one of temporary and ephemeral im- 
portance. Possibly, all the advantages he will 
gain by transferring to his accuser a portion of 
the popular prejudice against Abolition and Abo- 
litionists, . an be spared to him. It would be 



the stability of the Constitution and the integ- 
ty of the Union " 
In like 



wise, however, for those whotie interests ai-e in- 
separable from Slaveiy to reflect that Abolition 
will gain an equivalent benefit from the identifi- 
cation of the President's defense with their che- 
rished institution. Abolition is a slow 
pressible uprising of principles of natural 
ice and humanity, obnoxious to pn ' 
cause they conflict inconveniently with exi sting 
material, social and political interests-P'^ 
to others than statesmen, charged with the care 
of present interests, to conduct the social reforma- 
tion of mankind in its broadest bearings. I leave 
to Abolitioniststheir own work of self-vindication. 
I may, however, remind slaveholders that there 
is a time when oppression and persecution cease 
to be eSectual against such movements ; and 
then the odium they have before unjustly incurred 
becomes an element of strength and power. 
Christianity blindly maligned during three cen- 
turies by Prffitors, Governors, Senates, Coun- 
cils and Emperors, towered above its enemies in 
a fourth ; and even the cross on which its founder 
had expired, and which therefore was the emblem 
of its shame, became the sign under which it 
went forth evermore thereafter, conquering and 
to conquer. Abolition is only yet in its first 
century. The President raises in Lis defense 
a false issue, and elaborates an irrelevant argu- 
ment to prove that Congress has no right or 
power, nor has any sister State any right or 
power to interfere within a slave State, by legis- 
lation or force to abolish Slavery therein — as if 
you, or I, or any other responsible man, ever 
maintained the contrary. The President dis- 
torts the Constitution from its simple text, so as 
to make it expressly and directly defend, protect 
and guarantee African Slavery. Thus he al- 
leges that "the Government" which resulted 
from the Revolution was a " Federal Republic 
of the free white men of the Colonies," whereas, 
on the contrary, the Declaration of Independ- 
ence asserts the political equality of all men, and 
even the Constitution itself carefully avoids any 
political recognition not merely of slavery, but 
of the diversity of races. The President repre- 
sents the Fathers as having contemplated and 
provided for a permanent increase of the num- 
ber of Slaves in some of the States, and there- 
fore forbidden Congress to touch Slavery in thd 
way of attack or offence, and as Laving there- 
fore also placed it under the general safeguarri «f 
the Constitution ; whereas the Paths »j- 

thorizing Congress to abolish the Africans' JiSave 
trade after 1808, as a means of attack, ii.„.„>K^ 
on Slavery in the States a blow, of which thej 
expected it to languish immediately, and ulti- 
mately to expire. 

The President closes his defence in the Annual 
Message with a deliberate assault, very incon- 
gruous in such a place, upon some of the Nor- 
thern States. At the same time he abstains, 
with marked caution, from naming the accused 
States. They, however, receive a compinnent at 
his handi-, by wa} uf giving Letnnesi^ lo in^ re 



bnke, wliich enables us to identify them. They 
are Northern States " which were conspicuous 
in founding the Eepublic." All of the original 
Northern States were conspicuous in that great 

..transaction. All of them, therefore, are ac- 
cused. The offence charged is, that they disre- 
gard their constitutional obligations, and al- 
though " conscious of their inability to heal ad- 

Vmitted and palpable social evils of their own, 
confessedly within their jurisdiction, they engage 
in an offensive, hopeless, and illegal undertaking, 
to reform the domestic institutions of the South- 
ern States, at the peril of the very existence of 
the Constitution, and of all the countless bene- 
fits which it has conferred." I challenge the 
President to the proof, in behalf of Massachu- 
setts, although I have only the interest common 
to all Americans, and to all men in her great 
fame, — what one corporate or social evil is 
there, of which she is conscious, and conscious 
also of inability to heal it ? Is it ignorance, 
prejudice, bigotry, vice, crime, public disorder, 
poverty, or disease, afflicting the minds or the 
bodies of her people ? There she stands. Sur- 
vey her universities, colleges, academies, obser- 
vatories, primary schools, Sunday schools, penal 
codes, and penitentiaries. Descend 'into her 
quarries, walk over her fields and through her 
gardens, observe her manufactories of a thou- 
sand various fabrics, watch her steamers ascen- 
ding every river and inlet on your own coast, 
and her ships displaying their canvas on every 
sea ; follow her fishermen in their adventurous 
voyages from her own adjacent bays to the icy 
ocean under either pole ; and then return and 
enter her hospitals, which cure or relieve suffer- 
ing humanity in every condition and at every 
period of life, from the lying-in to the second- 
childhood, and which not only restore sight to 
the blind, and hearing to the deaf, and speech to 
the dumb, but also bring back wandering reason 
to the insane, and teach even the idiot to think ! 
Massachusetts, Sir, is a model of States, worthy 
of all honor, and though she was most conspic- 
uous of all the States in the establishment of 
republican institutions here, she is even more 
conspicuous still for the municipal wisdom with 
which she has made them contribute to the Afel- 
fare of her people, and to the greatness of the 
Republic itself. In behalf of New York, for 
whom it is my right and duty to speak, I defy 
the Presidential accuser. Mark her tranquil 
magnanimity, which becomes a State for whose 
delivery from tyranny Schuyler devised and la- 
bored who received her political constitution 
from Hamilton, her intellectual and physical de- 
velopement from Clinton, and her lessons in hu- 
manity from Jay. As she waves her wand over 
the continent, trade forsakes the broad natural 
channels which conveyed it before to the Dela- 
wat e and Chesapeake bays and to the Gulfs of 
St Lawrence and of Mexico, and, obediently to 
her ooinmand, pours itself through her artificial 
chanueLs into her own once obscure seaport. She 



stretches her wand again towards the ocean, and 
the commerce of all the continents concentrates 
itself at her feet ; and with it, strong and full 
floods of immigration ride in, contributing la- 
bor, capital, art, valor, and enterprise to perfect 
and embellish our ever-widening empire. When, 
and on what occasion, has Massachusetts or 
New York officiously and illegally intruded her- 
self within the jurisdiction of sister States to 
modify or reform their institutions ? No, no, 
Sir. Their faults have been quite different. 
'I hey have conceded too often and too much for 
their own just dignity and influence in Federal 
Administration, to the querulous complaints of 
the States in whose behalf he arraigns them. I 
thank the President for the insult which, though 
80 deeply unjust, was perhaps needful to arouse 
them to their duty in this great emergency. The 
President, in this connection, reviews the acqui- 
sitions of new domain, the organization of new 
Territories, and the admission of new States, 
and arrives at results which must be as agreeably 
surprising to the Slave States as they are as- 
tounding to the Free States. He finds that the 
former have been altogether guiltless of political 
ambition, while he convicts the latter not only 
of unjust territorial aggrandizement, but also of 
false and fraudulent clamor against the Slave 
States, to cover their own aggressions. Not- 
withstanding the President's elaborated miscon- 
ceptions, these historical facts remain, namely — 
that no acquisition whatever has ever been made 
at the instance of the Free States, and with a 
view to their aggrandizement ; that Louisiana 
and Florida, incidentally acquired for general 
and important national objects, have already 
yielded to the Slave States three States of their 
own class, while Texas was avowedly annexed as 
a means of security to Slavery, and one Slave 
State has been already admitted from that ac- 
quisition, and Congress has stipulated for the ad- 
mission of four more : that by way of equiva- 
lent for the admission of California a Free 
State, the Slave States have obtained a virtual 
repeal of the Mexican law which forbade Sla- 
very in New Mexico and Utah ; and that, as a 
consequence of that extraordinary legislation. 
Congress has also rescinded the prohibition of 
Slavery, which, in 1820, was extended over all 
that part of Louisiana, except Missouri, which 
lies north of 36 => 30' of north latitude. Sir, 
the real crime of the Northern States is this : 
they have forty degrees too much of north lati- 
tude. 

I dismiss for the present the Preident's first 
defense against the accusation of the new State 
of Kansas. On the 24th of January, 1856, 
when no important event had happened which 
was unknown at the date of the President's an- 
nual Message, he submitted to Congress his 
second defense in the form of a special Messaga 
In this paper the President deplores, as the 
cause of all the troubles wliich bavf oocured in 
Kansas, delays of the organization of the TerrK 



tory, which have been permitted by the Gov- 
ernor, Mr. Reeder. The organic law was passed 
by Congress on the 31st of May, 1854 ; but on 
that day there was not one lawful elector, citi- 
zen, or inhabitant within the Territory, while the 
4uestion whether Slavery or universal Freedom 
should be established there, was devolved practi- 
cally on the first Legislative bodies to be elected 
by the people who were to become thereafter the 
inhabitants of Kansas. The election fnr the 
first Legislative bodies was appointed by the 
Governor to be held on the 30th of March, 1855 ; 
and the 2d day of July, 1855, was designated 
for the organization of the Legislative Assem- 
bly. The only civilized community that was in 
contact with the new Territory was Missouri, a 
slaveholding State, at whose instance the prohi- 
bition of Slavery within the Territory had been 
abrogated, so that she might attempt to colo- 
nize it vvith slaves. Immigrants were invited 
not only from all pans of the United States, but 
also from all other parts of the world, with a pledge 
that the people of the new Territory should be 
left perfectly free to establish or prohibit Sla- 
very A special election, however, was held within 
the Territory on the 29th day of November, 
1854, without any preliminary census of the in- 
habitants, for the purpose of choosing a Dele- 
gate, who might sit, without a right to vote, in 
Congress, during the second session of the 
Thirty-third Congress, which was to begin on 
the first Monday of December, 1854, and to end 
on the 3d day of March, 1855, Mr. J. W. Whit- 
field was certified to be elected. 'I here were 
vehement complaints of illegality in the elec- 
tion, but this title was, nevertheless, not con- 
tf.flted, for the palpable reasoas, that an investi- 
gation under the circumstances of the Territory, 
during so short a session of Congress, would be 
imp(jssible, and that the question, was of incon- 
siderable magnitude. Yet the President la- 
ments that the Governor neglected to order the 
first election for the Legislative Bodies of the 
new Territory to be held simii'.taneously with 
that hurried Congressional election, ile sissigns 
his reasons : " Any question appertaining W the 
qualifications of persons voting as the people 
of the Territory would (in that case, inciden- 
tally) have necessarily passed under the super- 
vision of Congress (meaning the House of Rep- 
resentatives), and would have been determined 
before conflicting passions had been inflamed 
by time, and before an opportunity would have 
been alForded for systematic interference by 
the people of individual States." Could the 
President, in any explicit arraiij^-^'^ient of words, 
more distinctly have confessed his disappoint- 
ment in failing to secure a merely formal election 
of Legislative bodies within the Territory, in 
fraud of the organic law, of the people of Kan- 
sas, and of the cause of natural justice and hu- 
manity ? The President then proceeds to launch 
severe denunciations against what he calls a pro- 
pagandist attempt to colonize the 'I'erritory 



with opponents of Slavery. The whole Amer- 
ican continent has been undergoing a process of 
colonization, in many forms, throughout a period 
of three hundred and fifty years. The only 
common element of all those forms was propa- 
gandisra. Were not the voyages of Columbus 
propagandist expeditions, under the auspices of 
the Pope of Rome ? Was not the wide occupa- 
tion of Spanish America, a propagandism of 
the Catholic Church. The settlement of Mas- 
sachusetts by the Pilgrims ; of the New-Neth- 
erlands by the Reformers of Holland ; the later 
plantation of the Mohawk valley by the Pala- 
tines ; the establishment of Pennsylvania by the 
Friends ; the missions of the Moravians at Beth- 
lehem, in the same state ; the foundation of 
Maryland by Lord Baltimore and his colony 
of British Catholics ; the settlement of James- 
town by the Cavaliers and Churchmen of Eng- 
land ; that of South Carolina by the Hugue- 
nots. Were not all these propagandists colo- 
nizations ? Was not Texas settled by a colony 
of slaveholders, and California by companies of 
freemen ? Yet never before did any Prince, 
King, Emperor, or President, denounce such 
colonizations. Does any law of nature or na- 
tations forbid them ? Does any public authority 
quarantine on the ground of public opinion, the 
ships which are continually pouring into the 
gates of New York whole religious societies 
from Ireland, Wales, Germany and Norway, 
with their pastors, and clerks, and choirs ? But 
the President charges that the Propagandists 
entered Kansas with a design to " anticipate and 
force the determination of the Slavery ques- 
tion within the Territory," (in favor of free- 
dom,) forgetting, nevertheless, that he has only 
just before deplored a failure of his own to an- 
ticipate and favor the determination of that 
question in favor of Slavery, by a ouptde main, 
in advance even of their departure from their 
homes in the Atlantic States and in Europe. 
He charges, moreover, that the Propagandists 
designed to " prevent the free and natural action 
of the inhabitants in the intended organiza- 
tion of the Territory," when, in fact, they 
were pursuing the only free and natural course to 
organize it, by immigrating and becoming per- 
manent inhabitants, citizens and electors of Kan- 
sas. Not one unlawful or turbulent act has been 
hitherto charged against any one of the propa- 
gandists of Freedom. Mark, now, an extraor- 
dinary inconsistency of the President. On the 
20th of June, 1854, only 29 days after the open- 
ing of tlie Territory, and before one of these 
emigrants had reached Kansas, or even Mis- 
souri, a propagandist association but not of 
emigrants, named the Platte County Self-De- 
fensive Association, assembled at Weston, on 
the Western Border of Missouri, in the inter- 
est of Slavery ; and it published, through the 
organ of the President of the United States at 
that place, a resolution that " when called upon 
i by any citizens of Kansas, its members would 



hold themselves in readiness to assist in remov- 
ing any and all emigrants who should go there 
under the aid of Northern Emigi'ant Socie- 
ties." This association afterward often made 
good its atrocious threats, by violence against 
the property, peace, and lives of unoffending cit- 
izens of Kansas. But the President of the 
United States, so far from denouncing it, does 
not even cote its existence. The majority of the 
Committee on Territories ingeniously elaborate 
the President's charge, and arraign iSIassachu- 
setts, her Emigrant Aid Society, and her emi- 
grants. What has Massachusetts done worthy 
of censure? Before the Kansas organic law 
was passed by Congress, Massachusetts, on ap- 
plication, granted to some of her citizens who 
were engaged in "taking up" new lands in 
Western regions, one of those common charters 
which are used, by all associations, industrial, 
moral, social, scientific and religious, now-a-days, 
instead of co-partnerships, for the more conve- 
nient transaction of their fiscal affiiirs. The ac- 
tual capital is some $60,000. Neither the grant- 
ing of the charter, nor any legislative action of 
the association under it was morally wrong. To 
emigrate from one State or Territory singly, or 
in company with others, with or without incor- 
poration by statute, is a right of every citizen 
of the United States, as it is a right of every 
freeman in the world. The State that denies 
this right is a tyranny — the subject to whom it 
is denied is a slave. Such free emigration is the 
chief element of American progress and civili- 
zation Without it there could be no communi- 
ty, no political Territory, no State in Kansas. 
Without it, there could have been no United 
States of America. To retain and carry into 
Kansas cherished political, as well as moral, so- 
cial, and religious convictions, is a right of eve- 
ry emigrant. Must emigrants to that Territory 
carry there only their peraons, and leave behind 
their minds and souls, disembodied and wander- 
ing in their native lands? They only are fit 
founders of a State who exercise independence 
of opinion ; and it is to the exercise of that right 
that our new States, equally with all the older 
ones, owe their intelligence and vigor. 

Tliere are, who, distant from their native soil, 
Still for their own and country's glory toil ; 
While some, fast rooted to their parent's spot. 
In life are useless, and in death, forgot. 

It is not morally wrong fur Massachusetts to 
aid her sons, by a charter, to do what in itself is 
innocent and commendable. The President and 
the majority of the Committee maintain that 
such associations are in violation of national or 
at least of international laws. Here is the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and here are the 
Statutes at Large, in ten volumes, octavo. Let 
the President or his defenders point out the in- 
hibition. They specify, particularly, that the 
action of the State violu*es a law of comity, 
which regulates the intercou-se of independent 
States, and especially the intercourea between 



the members of the Federal Union. Here ara 
Vattel and Burlamaqui. Let them point out Ib 
these pages this law of comity. There is no law 
of comity which forbids nations from permitting 
and encouraging emigration, on the ground of 
opinion. Moreover, Slavery is an outlaw under 
the law of nations. Still further, the Constitu- 
tion .of the United States has expressly incorpo- 
rated into itself all of the laws of comity, for 
regulating the intercourse between independent 
States, which it deems proper to adopt. What- 
ever is forbidden expressly by the Constitution 
is unlawful. Whatever is not forbidden is law- 
ful. The supposed law of comity is not incor- 
porated into the Constitution. With the aid of 
the Committee on 'J'erritories, we discover that 
the emigrants from Massachusetts have violated 
the supposed national laws, not by any unlawful 
conduct of their own, but by provoking the un- 
lawful and flagitious conduct of the invaders of 
Kansas. " They passed through Missouri in 
large numbers, using violent language, and giv- 
ing unmistakable indications of their hostility to 
the domestic institutions of that State," and thus 
" they created apprehensions that the object of 
the Emigrant Aid Company was to abolitionize 
Kansas, as a means of prosecuting a relentless 
warfare upon the institution of Slavery within 
the limits of Missouri, which apprehensions in- 
creasing with the progress of events, ultimately 
became settled convictions of the people of 
Western JVlissouri " Missouri builds railroads, " 
steamboats, and wharves. It cannot be, there- 
fore, that the mere " largeness of the numbers" 
of the Eastern travellers offended or alarmed the 
borderers. I confess my surprise that the so- 
journers used violent language. It seems 'unlike 
them. I confess my greater surprise that the 
borderers were disturbed so deeply by mere 
words. It seems unlike them. Which of the 
domestic institutions of Missouri were those 
against which the travellers manifested deter- 
mined hostility ? Not certainly her manufacto- 
ries, banks, railroads, churches and schools. All 
these are domestic institutions held in high res- 
pect by the men of Massachusetts, and are just 
such ones as these emigrants are now establish- 
ing in Kansas. It was, therefore, African Slavery 
alone, a peculiar domestic institution of Missouri, 
against which their hostility was directed. Waiv- 
ing a suspicious want of proof of the unwise 
conduct charged against them, I submit that 
clearly they did not thereby endanger that pecu- 
liar institution in Missouri, for they passed di- 
rectly through that State into Kansas. How, 
then were the borderers provoked ? The ilissou- 
rians inferred from the iangaage and demeanor 
of the travellers that they would abolitionize 
Kansas, and thereafter, by means of Kansas abo- 
litionizcd, prosecute a relentless warfare against 
Slavery in ^lissouri. Far-seeing statesmen are 
these Missouri borderers, but less deliberate 
than far-sighted. Kansas was not to be abolition- 
ized. It had never been otherwise than abaiition 



izcd Abolitionized Kansas would constitute no 
means for the prosecution of such a Avarfare. 
Missouri lies adjacent to abolitionized Iowa on 
the north and to abolitionized Illinois on the 
east ; yet neither of those States has ever been 
used for such designs How could this fearful 
enemy prosecute a warfare against Slavery in 
llissouri ? Only by buying tlie plantations of 
her citizens at their own prices, an<l so qualify- 
ing themselves to speak their hostility through 
the ballot-boxes. Could apprehension so absurd 
justify the invasion of Kansas? are the people 
of Kansas to be disfranchised and trodden down 
by the President of the United States, in punish- 
ment for any extravagance of emigrants, in Mis- 
souri, on the way to that Territory ? Such is 
the President's second defence, so far as it pre- 
sents new matter in avoidance of the accusation 
of the new State of Kansas. I proceed, in the 
third place, to establish the truth of the ac- 
cusations. Of what sort must the proofs be? 
Manifestly only such as the circumstances of the 
case permit to exist. Not engrossed documents, 
authenticated by executive, judicial or legislative 
officers. The transactions occurred in an unor- 
ganized country. All the authorities subse- 
quently established in the Territory are impli- 
cated — all the complainants disfranchised. Only 
presumptive evidences, derived from the cotem- 
poraneous statements and actions of the parties 
concerned, can be required. Such presumptive 
evidence is derived from the nature and charac- 
ter of the President's defences. Why did the 
President plead at all on the 81st of December 
last, when the new state of Kansas was yet un- 
organized, and could not appear here to prefer 
her accusations until the 23d of March ? Why, 
if he must answer so prematurely, did he not 
plead a general and direct denial ? If he must 
plead specially, why did he not set forth the 
facts, instead of withholding all actual informa- 
tion concerning the case ? Why, since, instead 
of defending j^himself, he must implead his ac- 
cuser, did he not state, at least, the ground on 
which that accuser claimed to justify the con- 
duct of which he complained? Why did he 
threaten " to overcome and suppress" the peo- 
ple of Kansas, as insurrectionists, if he did not 
mean to terrify them, and to prevent their ap- 
apearing here, or at least to prejudice their 
cause? Why did he mock them with a pro- 
mise of protection thereafter against interfe- 
rence by citizens of other States, if they 
should deport themselves peacefully and sub- 
missively to the Territorial authorities, if no 
cause for apprehending such interference had al- 
ready been given by previous invasion ? Why 
did he labor to embarrass his accuser by identi- 
fying her cause with the subject of Abolition of 
Slavery, and stigmatize her supporters with op- 
probrious epithets, and impute to them depraved 
and seditious motives ? Why did he interpose 
the false and impertinent issue whether one State 
eould intervene by its laws or by force to abo- 



lish Slavery in another State ? Why did he dis- 
tort the Constitution, and present it as express- 
ly guaranteeing the perpetuity of Slavery ? Why 
did he arraign so unnecessarily and so un- 
justly, not one, but all of the original Northern 
States ? Why did he drag into this case, where 
only Kansas is concerned, a studied, partial and 
prejudicial history of the past enlargements of 
the nHtional domain, and of the vast contests 
between the Slave States and the Free States 
in their rivalry for the balance of power ? Why 
did not the President rest content with one such 
attack on the character and conduct of the new 
State of Kansas, in anticipating her coming, if 
he felt assured that she really had no merit on 
which to stand ? Why did he submit a second 
plea in advance ? Why in this plea does he de- 
plore the delays which prevented the Missouri 
borderers from effecting the conquest of Kansas, 
and the establishment of Slavery therein, at the 
time of the Congressional election held in No- 
vember, 1854, in fraud of the Kansas law, and of 
justice and humanity ? Why, without reason, or 
authority of public or of national law, does he 
denounce Massachusetts, her Emigrant Aid So- 
ciety, and her emigrants ? If " propagandist" 
emigrations must be denounced, why does he- 
spare the Platte County Self-Defensive Associa- 
tion ? Why does he charge Governor Reeder 
with " failing to put forth all his energies to pro- 
vent or counteract the tendencies to illegality 
which are found to exist in all imperfectly or- 
ganized and newly-associated countries," if, in- 
deed, no " illegality" has occurred there? While 
thus, by implication, admitting that such illegal- 
ity has occurred in Kansas, v,'hy does he not tell 
us its nature and extent ? Why, when Governor 
Reeder was implicated in personal conduct, not 
criminal, but incongruous with his official rela- 
tions, did the President retain him in office until 
after he had proclaimed at Easton that Kansas 
had been subjugated by the borderers of Missou- 
ri, and why, after he had done so, and had de- 
nounced the Legislature, did the President re- 
move him for the same pre-existing cause only ? 
Why does the President admit that the election 
for the legislative bodies of Kansas was held un- 
der circumstances inauspicious to a truthful and 
legal result, if nevertheless, the result attained was 
indeed a truthful and legal one ? On what evi- 
dence does the President ground his statement 
that, after that election, there were mutual com- 
plaints of usurpation, fraud, and violence, when 
we hear from no other quarter of such com- 
plaints made by the party that prevailed ? If 
there were such mutual accusations, and even if 
they rested on probable grounds, would that fact 
abate the right of the people of Kansas to a 
government of their own, securing a safe and 
well-ordered freedom? Why does the Presi- 
dent argue that the Governor (Mr. Reeder) 
alone had the power to receive and consider the 
returns of the election of the Legislative bo- 
dies, and that he certified those returns in fifteen 



8 



out of the twenty-two Districts, when he knows 
that the Governor, behig his own ageift, gave 
the certificates on the ground that the returns 
were technically correct, and that the illegality 
complained of was in the conduct of the elec- 
tions and in making up of the returns by the 
judges, and that the terror of the armed inva- 
sion prevented all complaints of this kind from 
being presented to the Governor? Why does 
the President repose on the fact that the Gov- 
ernor, on the ground of informality in the re- 
turns, rejected the members who were chosen in 
the seven other Districts, and ordered new elec- 
tions therein, and certified in favor of the per- 
sons then chosen, when he knows that the ma- 
jority, elected in the fifteen districts, expelled at 
once the persons chosen at such second elections, 
and admitted these originally returned as elected 
in these seven Districts on the ground that the 
Governor's rejection of them, and the second 
election which he ordered, were unauthorized and 
illegal? Why does ihe President, although 
omitting to mention this last fact, nevertheless 
justify the expulsion o: these newly-elected mem- 
bers on the ground that it was authorized by 
parliamentary law, when he knows that there 
was no parliamentary or other law existing in 
the Territory, but the organic act of Congress, 
which conferred no such power on the Legisla- 
ture ? Why was Governor Reeder replaced by 
Mr. Shannon, who immediately proclaimed that 
the Legislative bodies which his predecessor had 
denounced were the legitimate Legislature of the 
Territory ? Why does the President plead that 
the subject of the alleged Missourian usurpa- 
tion and tyranny in Kansas was one which, by 
its nature, appertained exclusively to the juris- 
diction of the local authorities of the Territory, 
when, if the charges were true, there were no 
legitimate local authorities within the Territory ? 
Is a foreign usurpation in a defenceless territory 
of the United States to be tolerated, if only it 
be successful ? And is the Government de facto, 
by whomsoever usurped, and with whatever ty- 
ranny exercised, entitled to demand obedience 
from the people, and to be recognized by the 
President of the United States ? _ Why does he 
plead, that " whatever irregularities may have 
occurred it is now too late to raise the question?" 
Is there nothing left but endurance to the citi- 
zens of the United States, constituting a whole 
political community of men, women, and chil- 
dren — an incipient American State — subjugated 
and oppressed ? Must they sit down in peace, 
abandonetl, contented, and despised ? Why 
does he plead, that " at least it is a question as 
to which, neither now nor at any previous time, 
has the least possible legal authority been pos- 
sessed by the President of the United States?" 
Did any magistrate ever before make such an 
exhibition of ambitious imbecility? Cannot 
Congres,? clothe him with power to act, and is 
it not his duty to ask power to remove usurpa- 
tion and subvert tyranny in a Territory of the 



United States ? Are these the tone, the tenor, 
and the staple of a defence, where the accused is 
guiltless, and the crimes charged were never 
committed ? The President virtually confesses 
all the transacions charged, by thus presenting a 
connected system of maxims and principles, in- 
vented to justify them. I proceed, however, to 
clinch conviction by direct and positive proofs : 
First, the statements of the party which has 
been overborne. General Pomeroy and his as- 
sociates, in behalf of the State of Kansas, make 
this representation concerning the Congressional 
election held in the Territory on the 30th of 
November, ISSd : 

"The first ballot box that was opened upon our virgin soil 
was closed to us by overpowering numbers and impending 
force. So bold and reckless were our invaders, tliat they 
cared not to conceal their attack. They came upon us, not 
in the guise of voters, to steal away our franchise, but boldly 
and openly, to snatch it with a strong hand. Tliey came di- 
rectly from their own homes, and in compact and organized 
bands, with arms in hand and provisions for the expedition, 
marched to our polls, and when their work was done, return- 
ed whence they came. It is unnecessary to enter into the 
details; it is enough to say that in three distiots, in which, 
by the most irrefragable evidence, there were not one hun- 
dred and fifty voters, most of whom refused to participate in 
the mockery of the elective franchise, these invaders polled 
over a thousand votes." 

In regard to the election of the 30th of 
March, 1855, the same parties state : 

"They (the Missourians) arrived at their several destina- 
tions the night before tne election, and having pitched their 
camps and placed their sentries, waited for the coming day. 
Baggage wagons were there, with arms and ammunition 
enough for a protracted fight, and among them two brass 
field-pieces, ready charged. They came with drums beating 
and flags flying, and their leaders were of the most prominent 
and conspicuous men of their respective States. In the 
morning they surrounded the polls, armed with guns, bowie- 
knives, and revolvers, and declared their determination to 
vote at all hazards, and in spite of all consequences. If the 
judges could be made to subserve their purposes, and re- 
ceive their votes, and if no obstacle was cast in their way. 
their leaders exerted themselves to preserve peace and ord'.r 
in the conduct of the election ; but. at the same time, did 
not hesitate to declare, that if not allowed to vote, they would 
proceed to any extremity in destruction of property and 
life. If the control of the polls could not be had otherwise, 
the judges were by intimidation, and, if necessary, by vio- 
lence prevented from performing their duty, or, it unyield- 
ing in this respect, were driven from thi^ir post, and the va- 
cancy filled in form by the persons on the ground ; and 
whenever by any means they liad obtained the control of the 
board, the foreigu vote was promiscuously poured in, with- 
out discrimination or reserve, or the slightest care to con- 
ceal its nefarious illegality. At one of tlie polls, two of the 
judges having manfully stood up in the face of the armed 
mob and declared they would do their duty, one portion of 
the mob commenced to tear down the house, another pro- 
ceeded to break in the door of the judge's room, while others, 
with drawn knives, posted themselves at the window, with 
the proclaimed purpjse of killing any voter who would al- 
low himself to be sworn. Voters were dragged from the win- 
dow, because they would not show their tickets or vote at the 
dictation of the mob ; and the invaders declared cpenly, at 
the p.ills, that they would cut the throats of the judges if 
they did not receive their votes without requiring an oath as 
to their residence. The room was finally forced, and the 
judges, surrounded by an armed and excited crowd, were 
olfered the alternative of resignation or death, and five min- 
utes were allowed for their decision. The ballot-box was 
seized, and, amid shouts of 'Hurrah for Missouri,' was car- 
ried into the mob. The two menaced judges then lelt the 
ground, together with all the resident citizens, except a few_ 
who acted in the outrage, been use the result expected from 
it correspinded to their own views. 

" When an excess of the foreign force was found to be had 
at one pjll, detachments were sent to the others. * * * 
A minister of the Gospel, who refused to accede to the de- 
mands of a similar mob of some four liundred armed and or- 
ganized men, was driven by violence from his post, and the 
vacancy filled by themselves. • * » * Another clergy- 
man, for the expression of his opinion, was assaulted and 
beaten. • * • * The inhabitants of the District, power- 
less to resist the abundant supp y of arms and animuuition, 
organized prtparation, and overwhelming numbers of the 
foreigners, lelt the p^lls without voting. * * • * In the 
La rence District, one voter was fired at as he was driven 
from the election ground. • « * » Finding they had a 
I greater force tlian was necessary for that poll, some 2l!0 men 
1 were drafted from the number, and sent oil' under the proyer 



officers to another district, after which the" still polled from 
this caiup 700 votes. * * • * In tlie Kouith and Seventh 
Districts, the invaders came together in an armed and or- 
ganized body, with trains of fifty wagons, besides liorsemen, 
and, the nigiit before election, pitclied their cainps in the 
vicinity of the polls, and liaviug appointed their own judges 
in place of those who, from intimidation or otherwise, failed 
to attend, they voted without any proof of residence. In 
these two election districts, where tlie census sliows lot) 
voters, there were polled 314 votes, and last fall 7ii5 votes, al- 
though a large part of the actual residents did not vote on 
either occasion « » * * From a careful examination of 
the returns, we are satisfied that over 3,UU0 votes were thus 
east by the citizens and residents of the States." 

I place iu opposition to those statements of 
the party that was overborne, the statements of 
the party that prevailed, beginning with signals 
of tlie attack, and ending with celebrations of 
the victory. 

Gren. Stringfellow addressed the invaders in 
Missouri, on the eve of the election of March 30, 
1855, thus : 

"To those who have qualms of conscience as to violating 
laws. State or National, the time has come when such impo- 
sitions must be disregarded, as your rights and property are 
in danger; and I advise you, one and all, to enter every elec- 
tion district in Kansas, in defiance of Reeder and his vile 
myrmidons, and vote at the point of the bowie knife and the 
revolver. Neither give nor take quarter, as our case demands 
it. It is enough that the slaveholding interest wills it, from 
vfhich there is no appeal, '^hat right has Gov. Reeder to 
rule Missourians in Kansas? His proclamation and pre- 
scribed oath must be repudiated. It is your interest to do so. 
Mind that Slavery is established where it is not prohibited." 

T/ie Kansas Herald, an organ of both the Ad- 
ministration and the Pro-Slavery party, an- 
nounced the result of the legislative election in 
tbe Territory immediately afterward as follows : 

" Yesterday was a proud and glorious day for the friends 
of Soutliern rights. The triumph of the Pro-Slavery party is 
complete and overwhelming. Come on. Southern men ! 
Bring youi' slaves, and fill up the Territory! Kansas ia 
saved !" 

The Squatter Sovereign, published in Missouri, 
thus liiinounced the result of the election, the 
after it closed : 

" Indepbndence, March 31, 1835. 
"Several hundred emigrants from Kansas have just en- 
tered our city. They were preceded by the Westport and 
Independence brass bands. They came in at the west side 
of the public square, and proceeded entirely around it. the 
bands cheering us with fine music, and the emigrants with 
good news. Immediately following the bands were about 
two hundred horsemen in regular order; following these 
were one hundred and fifty wagons, carriages, &c They 
gave repeated cheers for Kansas and Missouri. They report 
that not an Anti Slavery man will be in the Legislature of 
Kansas. We have made a clean sweep." 

A letter written at Brunswick, in Missouri, 
dated April 20, 1855, and published in The New 
York Herald, a Pro-Slavery journal, says that 

" From five to seven thousand men started from Missouri 
to attend the election, some to remove, but the most to re- 
turn to their families, with an intention, if they liked the 
Territory, to make it their permanent abode, at the earliest 
moment practicable. But they intended to vote. The Mis- 
sourians were, many of them, Douglas men. There were 150 
voters from this county, 175 from Howard, 100 from Cooper. 
Indeed, every county furnished its quota ; and when they set 
out it looked like an army * • They were armed. * * * 
And, as there were no houses in the Territory, they carried 
tents. Their mission was a peaceable one— to vote, and to 
drive down stakes for tlieir future homes. After the election 
some 1.500 of the voters sent a committee to Mr. Reeder, to 
ascertain if it was his purpose to ratify the election. He an- 
swered that it was, and said the majority at an election must 
carry the day- But it is not to be denied that the 1500, ap- 
prehending that the Governor might attempt to play the ty- 
rant—since his conduct had already been insidious and un- 
just—wore on their hats bunches of hemp. They were re- 
solved, if a tyrant attempted to trample upon the rights of 
the sovereign people, to hang him." 

On the 29th of May, 1855, The Squatter Sov- 
ereign, an organ of the invasion in Missouri, thus 
f'ave utterance to its spirit : 



day 



" From reports now received ot! IIt.i;i;^(!lcr, lie never intends 
returning to our borders. Should he do so, we, without hes- 
itation, say that our people ought to hang him by the neck, 
like a traitorous dog, as he is, so soon as be puts his unhal- 
lowed feet upon our shores. 

"Vindicate your characters and the Territory ; and should 
the ungrateful dog dare to come among us again, hang him 
to the first rotten tree. 

" A military force to protect the ballot box ! Let President 
Pierce, or Gov. Reeder, or any other power, attempt such a 
course in this or any other portion of the Union, and that day 
will ne^er be forgotten." 

Gov. Reeder, at Easton, in Pennsylvania, ou 
his first return to that place after the elections, 
declared the same result in frank and candid 
M'ords, which cost him his office, namely : 

"It was. indeed, too true that Kansas had been invaded, 
conquered, subjugated, by an armed force from beyond her 
borders, led on by a fanatical spirit, trampling under foot 
the principles of the Kansas bill and the riglit of EUflrage." 

The Hon. David R. Atchison, a direct and 
outspoken man, who never shrinks from respon- 
sibility, and who is confessedly eminent at once 
as a political leader in Missouri and as a leader 
of the Pro-Slavery movement therein directed 
against Kansas, in a speech reported as having 
been made to his fellow-citizens, and which, sc 
far as I know, has not been disavowed, said : 

"I saw it with my own eyes. These men came with the 
avowed purpose of driving or expelling you from the Terri- 
tory. What did I advise you to do? Why, meet them at 
their own game. When the first election came off, I told you 
to go over and vote You did so, and beat them. We, our 
party in Kansas, nominated Gen. Whitfield. They, the Abo- 
litionists, nominated Flenniken : not Planegan, for Flanegan 
was a good, honest man, but Flenniken. Well, the next day 
after the election, that same Flenniken, with three hundred 
of his Tiiters, left the Territory, and has never returned — no, 
never returned ! 

" Well, what next? Why, an election for members of the 
Legislature, to organize the Territory, must be held. What 
did I advise you to do then ? Why meet them on their own 
ground, and beat them at their own game again ; and, cold 
and inclement as the weather was, I went over with a com- 
pany of men. My object in going was not to vote; I had not 
a right to vote unless I had disfranchised myself in Missouri. 
I was not within two miles of a v ting place. My object in 
going was not to vote, but to settle a difficulty between two 
of our candidates; and the Abolitionists of the North said, 
and published it abroad, that Atchison was there, with bowie 
knife and revolver and by God 'twas true. I never did go 
into that Territory, I never intend to go into that Territory 
without being prepared for all such kind of cattle. Well, we 
beat them ; and Guv. Reeder gave certificates to a majcrity 
of all the members of both Houses ; and then, after they were 
organized, as everybody will admit, they were the only com- 
petent persons to say who were and who were not membera 
of the same." 

A tree is known by its fruits. If Missourians 
voted in Kansas, it would be expected that the 
ballots deposited would exceed the number of 
electors. Just so it was. We have seen that it 
was so asserted. The Executive Journal, re- 
cently obtained, proves that in four districts, 
where the results were not contested, 2,964 votes 
were cast on the 30th of March, although only 
1,365 voters were there, as ascertained by the 
census. Again : The Legislature chosen on the 
30th of March, 1855, withdrew from the interior 
of the Territory to a place inconvenient to its 
citizens, and on the border of Missouri. There 
that Legislature enacted laws to this effect, 
namely : forbidding the speaking, writing, or 
printing, or publishing of anything, in any form, 
calculated to disaffect slaves, or induce them to 
escape, under pain of not less than five ycare im- 
prisonment with hard labor ; and forbidding free 
persons from maintaining, by speech, writing, or 



10 



printing, or publishing, that slaves cannot law- 
fully be held in the Territory, under pain of im- 
prisonment and hard labor two years. The Le- 
gislature further enacted that no person " consci- 
entiously opposed to holding slaves," or enter- 
taining doubts of the legal existence of Slavery 
in Kansas, sliall sit as a juror in the trial of any 
cause founded on a breach of the laws which I 
have described: '\ hey further provided that all 
officers and attorneys should be sworn not only 
to support the Constitution of the United States, 
but also to support and sustain the organic law 
of the Territory, and the Fugitive Slave Law; 
and that any person offering to vote shall be 
presumed to be entitled to vote until the contrary 
IS shown ; and if any one, when required, shall 
refuse to take an oath to sustain the Fugitive 
Slave Law, he shall not be permitted to vote. 
Although they passed a law that none but an 
inhabitant who had paid a tax should vote, yet 
they made no time of residence necessary, and 
provided for the immediate payment of a poll 
tax ; so virtually declaring that on the eve of an 
election the people of a neighboring State can 
come in, in unlimited numbers, and, by taking 
up a residence of a day or an hour, pay a poll 
tax, and thus become legal voters, and then, after 
voting, return to their own State. They thus, 
in practical effect, provided for the people of 
Missouri to control future elections at their plea- 
3ure, and permitted such only of the real inhab- 
itants of the Territory to vote as arc friendly to 
the holding of slaves. They permitted no elec- 
tion of any of the officers in the Territory to be 
made by the people thereof, but created the 
offices, and filled tlaem, or appointed officers to 
fill them, for long periods. They provided that 
the next annual election should be held in Octo- 
ber, 185G, and the Assembly should meet in Jan- 
uary, 1857 ; so that none of these laws could be 
changed until the lower House might be changed, 
in 1855*; but the Council, which is elected for 
two years, could not be changed so as to allow 
a change of the laws or officers until the session 
of 1858, however much the inhabitants of the 
Territory might desire it. How forcibly do 
these laws illustrate that old political maxim of 
the English nation, that a Parliament called by 
a conqueror is itself conquered and enslaved! 
Who but foreigner, usurpers, and t3Tants could 
have made for the people of Kansas — a people 
" perfectly free " — such laws as these ? Anato- 
mists will describe the instrument, and even the 
force of the blow, if only you show them the 
wound. Behold the proofs on which the allega- 
tions of invasion, usurpation, and tyranny, made 
by the new State of Kansas, rest. They are, 
first : The President's own virtual admission, by 
defenses, indirect, irrelevant, ill-tempered, sophis- 
tical, and evasive. Second : An absolute agree- 
ment, concurrence, and harmony between the 
statements of the conflicting parties who were 
engaged in the transactions involved. Third : 
The consequences of those transactions exactly 



such as must follow, if the accusations be true, 
and such as could not result if they be false. 

A few words, however, must be added, to 
bring more distinctly into view, the President's 
complicity in these transactions, and to establish 
his responsibility therefor. The President open- 
ly lent his official influence and patronage to tho 
slaveholders of Missouri, to efiect the abroga- 
tion of the prohibition of Slavery in Kunzas, 
contained in the Act of Congress of 1820. He 
knew their purposes in regard to the elections in 
Kansas. He never interfered to prevent, to de- 
feat, or to hinder them. He employed his official 
patronage to aid them. He now defends and 
protects the usurpation and tyranny, established 
by the invaders in Kansas, with all the influence 
of his exalted station, and even with the milita- 
ry power of the Eepublic ; and he argues tho 
duty of the people there to submit to the force- 
able establishment of Slavery, in violation of 
the national pledge, which he concurred in giv- 
ing, that they should be left perfectly free to re- 
ject and exclude that justly obnoxious sys- 
tem. It thus appears that the President of the 
United States, holds the people of Kansas pros- 
trate and enslaved at his feet. To complete the 
painful account of this great crime, it is necessa- 
ry now to add that there has not been one day 
nor night, since the Government of Kansas was 
constituted and confided to the President of the 
United States, in which either the properties, or 
liberties, or even the lives, of its citizens have 
been secure against the violence and vengeance 
of the extreme foreign faction which he upholds 
and protects. At this day, Kansas is becoming 
more distinctly than before, the scene of a con- 
flict of irreconcilable opinions, to be determined 
by brute force. No emigrant goes there un- 
armed, no citizen dwells there in safety unarmed ; 
armed masses of men are proceeding into the 
Territory, from the various parts of the United 
States, to complete the work of invasion and 
tyranny which he has thus begun, under circum- 
stances of fraud and perfidy unworthy of the char- 
acter of the ruler of a free people. This gath- 
ering conflict in Kansas divides the sympathies, 
interests, passions, and prejudices of the people 
of the United States. Whether under such circum- 
stances,it can be circumscribedwithin the limits of 
the Territory of Kansas, must be determined by 
statesmen from their knowledge of the course of 
civil commotions, which have involved questions 
of moral right and conscientious duty, as well as 
balances of political power. Whether, on the 
other hand, the people of Kansas, under th*'se 
circumstances, will submit to this tyranny of a 
citizen of the United States like themselves, 
whose term of political power is nearly expired, 
can be determined by considering it in the as- 
pect in which it is viewed by themselves. 
Speechless here, as they yet are, I give utterance 
to their united voices, and, holding in my hand 
the arraignment of George III , by the Congress 
of 1776, I impeach — in the words of that im- 



11 



mortal text— the President of the United 
States : 

" II© has refused to pass laws for the accommodation of 
the people, unless they would relinquish the right of rep- 
reseutation in their Legislature, a right inestimable to 
them, and formidable to tyrants only : 

•' lie has called together Legislative bodies at a place un- 
usual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of 
Iheir public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them 
Into a compliance with his measures: 

" lie has prevented Legislative Houses from being elect- 
ed, for no other cause than his conviction that they would 
' oppose with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of 
the people :' 

" lie has refused for a long time after" spurious Legisla- 
tive houses were Imposed by himself, by usurpation, on the 
people of Kansas, " to cause others to be elected, whereby 
the Legislative powers, Incapable of annihilation, have re- 
turned to the people at large for their exercise, the State 
remaining in the meantime exposed to all the danger of 
invasion from without, ana civil war within : 

" He has created a multitude of new offices, and sent 
hither swarms of officers, to harrass our people and eat out 
their substance; 

" He has kept among ns in times of peace, standing ar- 
mies, to compel our submission to a foreign" Legislature, 
'' and has alTected to render the military independent of, 
and superior to, the civil power: 

"He has combined with others to subject us to a juris- 
diction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by 
our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended Legis- 
lation : 

" For proteoUng" Invaders of Kansas " from punishment 
for any murders which they sU^ll commit on the inhabi- 
tants of this Territory ; 

"For abolishing the free system of American law In" 
this Territory, " establishing therein an arbitrary Govern- 
ment, so as to render it at once an example and fit instru- 
ment for introducing the same absolute rule Into" other 
Ttrrltories : 

" For taking away our Charter, abolishing our most valu- 
able laws, arid altering fundamentally the powers of our 
Government : 

"For suspendins: our own Legislature, and declaring" 
an usurping Legislature, constituted by Idmself, "invested 
with power to Legislate for us in all cases whatsoever." 

What is wanting here to fill up the comple- 
ment of a high judicial process ? Is it an accu- 
ser ? The youngest born of the Republic is be- 
fore you imploring you to rescue her from immo- 
lation on the altar of public faction Is it a 
crime ? Bethink yourselves what it is that has 
been subverted It is the whole of a complete 
and rouuded-off Republican Government of a 
Territory, indeed, by name, but, in substance, a 
civil State. Consider the effect. The people 
of Kansas were " perfectly free." They now are 
frev^ only to submit and obey. Consider whose 
system that Republican Government was, and 
the power that established it. It was one of 
the Constitutions of the United States, estab- 
lishetl by an Act of the Congress of the United 
States. Consider what a ty^nnny it is that has 
been built on that atrocious usurpation It is 
not a discriminating tjTanny that selects and 
punishes one, or a few, or even many, but it dis- 
franchises all, and reduces every citizen to abject 
Slavery. Examine the code created by the Le- 
I giglature. All the statutes of the State of Mis- 
j Bouri are enacted in gross, without alteration or 
amendment, for the Government of Kansas ; 
and then, at the end, the hasty bkmder or mis- 
j nomer is corrected by an explanatory act, that 
I wherever the word " State" occurs it means 
1 " Territory." And what a code ! One that 
not, indeed, the fruits of the womb, but 



the equally important element of a State, the 
fruits — the immortal fruits — of the mind ; a 
code that puts in peril all rights and liberties 
whatsoever, by denying to men the right to 
know, to utter, and to argue, freely, according 
to conscience — a right in itself conservative of 
all other rights and liberties. I do not wonder 
that a Senator who has defended those laws 
here, deemed, it necessary, at the same time, to 
assail The New York Tribune. If transac- 
tions like those had occurred in old Rome, simi- 
lar denunciations would have fallen on the 
heads of the Gracchi — the Tribune of the peo- 
ple. Is an oflender wanting? He stands be- 
fore you, in many respects the most eminent man 
in all the world — the President of the United 
States — the constitutional and chosen defender 
and protector of the people who have been sub- 
jugated and enslaved. Is there any thing of 
dignity or authority wanting to this tribunal ? 
Where elsewhere shall be found one more au- 
gust than the Senate of the United States ? It 
is the ancient, constant and undoubted right and 
usages of Parliaments — it is the chief purpose 
of their being — to question and complain of all 
persons, of what degree soever, found grievous 
to the Commonwealth, in abusing the power 
and trust committed to them by the People. 
Does this tribunal need a motive? We have 
that, too, in painful reality. These usurpa- 
tions and oppressions have hitherto rested with 
the President of the United States, and those 
whom he has abetted. If they shall be left un- 
redressed, they will henceforth become, by adop« 
tion, our own. The conviction of the otlending 
President is complete, and now he sinks out 
of view. His punishment rests w th the People 
of the United States, whose trust he has be- 
trayed. His conviction was only incidental to 
the business which is the order of the day The 
order of the day is the redress of the wrongs of 
Kansas. 

How like unto each other are the parallels of 
tyranny and revolution in all countries and in 
all times ! Kansas is to-day in the very act of 
revolution against a tyranny of the President of 
the United States, identical in all its prominent 
features with that tyranny of the King of Eng- 
land which gave birth to the American Revolu- 
tion. Kansas has instituted a revolution, simply 
because ordinary remedies can never be applied 
in great political emergencies, 'i here is a pro- 
found philosophy that belongs to Revolutions. 
According to that Philosophy, the President is 
assumed by the people of Kansas to entertain 
a resentment which can never be appeased, and 
his power consequently, must be wholly taken 
away. Happily, however, for Kansas, and for 
us, her revolution is one that was anticipated 
and sanctioned and provided for in the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, and is, therefore, a 
peaceful and paradoxical as the expression may 
seem) a constitutional one. Never before havQ 
I seen occasion so great for admiring the wisdom 



12 



and forecast of those who raised that noble edi- 
fice of Civil Government. 'I he people of Kan- 
sas, deprived of their sovereignty by a domestic 
tyranny, have, nevertheless, lawfully rescued it 
provisionally, and, so exercising it, have consti- 
tuted themselves a State, and applied to Con- 
gress to admit them as such into the Federal 
Union. Congress has power to admit the new 
State thus organized. The favorable exercise 
of that power will terminate and crown the revo- 
lution. Once a State, the people of Kansas can 
preserve internal order, and defend themselves 
against invasion. Thus, the constitutional re- 
medy is as effectual as it is peaceful and simple. 
This is the remedy for the evils existing in the 
Territory of Kansas, which I propose. Happily, 
there is no need to prove it to be either a lawful 
one or a proper one, or the only possible one. 
The President of the United States and the Com- 
mittee on Territories, unanimously concede all this 
broad ground, because he recommends it, and 
they adopt it. Wherein, then, do I differ from 
them ? Simply thus : I propose to apply the 
remedy now, by admitting the new State with 
its present population and present Constitution. 
My opponents insist on postponing the measure 
until the Territory shall be conceded by the 
usurping authorities to contain 93,700 inhabi- 
tants, and until those authorities shall direct and 
authorize the people to organize a new State, 
under a new Constitution. In other words, I 
propose to allow the people of Kansas to apply 
the constitutional remedy at once. The Presi- 
dent proposes to defer it indefinitely, and to 
commit the entire application of it to the hands 
of the Missouri borderers. He confesses the in- 
adequacy of that course by asking appropriations 
of money to enable him to maintain and preserve 
order within the Territory until the indefinite 
period when the constitutional remedy shall be 
applied. There is no sufficient reason for the 
delay which the President advises. He admits 
the rightfulness and necessity of the remedy. It 
is as rightful and necessary now as it ever will 
be. It is demanded by the condition and cir- 
cumstances of the people of Kansas now. You 
cannot justly postpone any more than you can 
justly deny that i-ight. To postpone would be 
a denial. The President will need no grant of 
money, or armed men, to enforce obedience to 
law when you shall have redressed the wrongs of 
which the people complain. Even under Gov- 
ernments less free than our own, there is no need 
of power where justice holds the helm. When 
justice is impartially administered, the obedience 
of the subject or citizen will be voluntary, cheer- 
' ful, and practically unlimited. Freedom justly 
due cannot be conceded toosoon. 'I'rue Freedom 
exists, the utmost bounds of . civil liberty are 
obtained only where complaints are freely heard, 
deeply considered, and speedily redressed. So 
only can you restore to Kansas the perfect free- 
dom which you pledged, and she has lost. The 
Constitution does not prescribe 93,700, or any 



other number of people, as necessary to consti- 
tute a State, Besides, under the present ratio 
of increase, Kansas, whose population now is 
40,000, will number 100,000 in a fow months. 
The point made co^ -xerning numbers is therefore 
practically unimportant and frivolous. The 
President objects that the past proceedings, by 
which the new State of Kansas was organized, 
were irregular in three respects : First, That 
they were instituted, conducted and completed, 
without a previous permission by Congress, or 
by the local authorities within the Territory. 
Secondly, That they were instituted, conducted, 
and completed by a party, and not by the whole 
people of Kansas ; and. Thirdly, That the new 
State holds an attitude of defiance and insubor- 
dination towards the Territorial authorities and 
the Federal Union. I reply. First, 'I hat if the 
proceedings in question were irregular and par- 
tisan like and factious, the exigencies of the case 
would at least excuse the faults, and Congress 
has unlimited discretion to waive them. Second- 
ly : 'I he proceedings were not thus irregular, 
partisanlike, and factious, because no act of 
Congress forbade them — no act of the Territo- 
rial Legislature forbade them, directly or by im- 
plication — nor had the 'J erritorial Legislature 
power either to authorize or to prohibit them. 
The proceedings were, indeed, instituted by a 
party who favored them. But they were prose- 
cuted and consummated in the customary forma 
of popular elections, which were open to all the 
inhabitants of the Territory qualified to vote by 
the organic law, and by no others ; and they 
have in no case come into conflict, nor does the 
new State now act or assume to engage in con-^ 
flict with either the Territorial authorities or the 
Government of the Union. 'I hird : 'I here can be 
no irregularity where there is no law prescribing 
what shall be regular. Congress had passed no 
law establishing regulations for the organiza- 
tion or admission of new States. Precedents 
in such cases, being without foundation in law, 
are without authority. This is a country whose 
Government is regulated, not by precedents, but 
by Constitutions. But if precedents were ne- 
cessary, they are found in the cases of I exas and 
California, each of which was organized and ad- 
mitted, subject to the same alleged irregularities. 
The majority of the Committee on Territories, 
in behalf of the President, interpose one further 
objection, by tracing this new State organiza- 
tion to the influence of a secret, armed, political 
society. Secrecy and combination, with extra- 
judicial oaths and armed power, were the engine- 
ry of the Missouri borderers in eflecting the sub- 
jugation of the people of Kansas, as that machin- 
ery is always employed in the commission of po» 
litical crimes. How far it was lawful or morally 
right for the people of Kansas to employ the 
same agencies for the defence of their lives and 
liberties, may be a question for casuists, but 
certainly is not one for me. I can freely confess, 
however, my deep regret that secret societies for 



13 



any purpose -whatsoever have obtained a place 
among political organizations within the Re- 
public ; and it is my hope that the experience 
which we have now so distinctly had, that they 
can be but too easily adapted to unlawful, sedi- 
tious, and dangerous enterprises, while they 
bring down suspicion and censure on high and 
noble causes when identified with them, may be 
suflScient to induce a general discontinuance of 
them. Will the Senate hesitate for an hour be- 
tween the alternatives before them ? 

The passions of the American People find 
healthful exercise in peaceful colonizations, and 
the construction of railroads, and the building 
tip and multiplying of republican institutions. 
The Territory of Kansas lies across the path 
through which railroads must be built, and along 
which such institutions must be founded,without 
delay, in order to preserve the integrity of our 
Empire. Shall we suppress enterprises so be- 
nevolent and so healthful, and inflame our coun- 
try with that fever of intestine war which ex- 
hausts and consumes not more the wealth and 
strength than the virtue and freedom of a na- 
tion ? Shall we confess that the proclamation 
of popular sovereignty within the Territory of 
Kansas was not merely a failure, but was a pre- 
tense and a fraud ? Or will Senators now con- 
tend that the people of Kansas, destitute as they 
are of a Legislature of their own, of Executive 
authorities of their own, of Judicial authorities 
of their own, of a militia of their own, of 
revenues of their own, subject to disposal 
by themselves, practically deprived as they 
are of the rights of voting, serving as jurors, 
and of writing, printing, and speaking their 
own opinions, are nevertheless in the enjoy- 
ment and exercise of popular sovereignty? 
Shall we confess before the world, after so 
brief a trial, that this great political sys- 
tem of ours is inadequate either to enable the 
majority to control through the operation of 
opinion, without force, or to give security to the 
citizen against domestic tyranny and violence ? 
Are we prepared so soon to relinquish our sim- 
ple and beautiful systems of republican govern- 
ment, and to substitute in their place the ma- 
chinery of usurpation and despotism ? The Con- 
gress of the United States can refuse admission 
to Kansas only on the ground that it will not re- 
linquish the hope of carrying African Slavery 
into that new Territory. If you are prepared to 
assume that ground, why not do it manfully and 
consistently, and establish Slavery there by a 
direct and explicit act of Congress ? But have 
we come to that stage of demoralization and 
degeneracy so soon ? We, who commenced our 
political existence and gained the sympathies of 
the world by proclaiming to other nations that 
we held " These truths to be self-evident : That 
all men are born equal, and have certain inalien- 
able rights ; and that among these rights are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." We, 
who in the spirit of that declaration have as- 



sumed to teach and to illustrate, for the benefit 

of mankind, a higher and better civilization than 
they have hitherto known ! If the Congress of 
the United States shall persist in this attempt, 
then they shall at least allow me to predict its 
results. Either you will not establish African 
Slavery in Kansas, or you will do it at the cost 
of the sacrifice of all the existing liberties of the 
American people. P>en if Slavery were, what 
it is not, a boon to the people of Kansas, they 
would reject it if enforced upon their acceptance 
by Federal guns. The attempt is in conflict 
with all the tendencies of the age. African 
Slavery has for the last fifty years been giving 
way, as well in this country as in the islands and 
on the main land throughout this hemisphere. 
The political power and prestige of Slavery in 
the United States are passing away. The Slave 
States practically governed the Union directly 
for fifty years. They govern it now only indi- 
rectly, through the agency of Northern hands 
temporarily enlisted in their support, So much, 
owing to the decline of their power, they have 
already conceded to the Free States. The next 
step, if they persist in their present couree, will 
be the resumption and exercise by the Free 
States of the control of the Government, with- 
out such concessions as they have hitherto made 
to made to obtain it. Throughout a period of 
nearly twenty years, the defenders of Slavery 
screened it from discussion in the national coun- 
cils. Now, they practically confess to the ne- 
cessity for defending it here, by initiating discus- 
sion themselves. They have at once thrown 
away their most successful weapon, compromise, 
and worn out that one which was next in efl'cct- 
iveness, threats of secession from the Union. It 
is under such unpropitious circumstances that 
they begin the new experiment of extending 
Slavery into Free Territory by force, by the 
armed power of the Federal Government. You 
will need many votes from Free States in the 
House of Representatives, and even some votes 
from those States in this House, to send an army 
with a retinue of slaves in its train into Kansas. 
Have you counted up your votes in the two 
Houses ? Have you calculated how long those 
who shall cast such votes will retain their places 
in the National Legislature ? But I will grant 
for the sake of the argument, that with Federal 
battalions you can carry Slavery into Kansas, 
and maintain it there. Are you quite confident 
that this republican form of Government can 
then be upheld and preserved ? You will then 
yourselves have introduced the Trojan horse. No 
republican Government ever has endured, with 
standing armies maintained in its bosom to en- 
force submission to its laws. A people who h<tve 
once learned to relinquish their rights, under com- 
pulsion, will not be long in forgetting that they 
ever had any. In extending Slavery into Kan- 
sas, therefore, by arms, you will subvert the 
liberties of the people. Senators of the Free 
States, I appeal to you. Believe ye the prophets? 



14 



I Tciiow you do. Tou know, then, that Slavery 
neither works mines and quarries, nor founds 
cities, nor builds ships, nor levies armies, nor 
mans navies. Why, then, will you insist on 
closing up this new Territory of Kai eas against 
all enriching streams of immigration, while you 
pour into it" the turbid and poisonous waters of 
African Slavery ? Which one of you all, whe- 
ther of Connecticut, of Pennsylvania, or of Illi- 
nois, or of Michigan, would consent thus to ex- 
tinguish the chief light of civilization within the 
State in which your own fortunes are cast, and 
in which your own posterity is to live? Why will 
you pursue a policy so unkind, so ungenerous, 
and so unjust toward the helpless, defenseless, 
etruggling Territory of Kansas, inhabited as it is 
by our own brethren, depending on you for pro- 
tection and safety ? Will Slavery in Kansas 
add to the wealth or power of your own States, 
or to the wealth, power, or glory of the Eepub- 
lic ? You know that it will diminish all of these. 
You profess a desire to end this national debate 
about Slavery, which has become, for you, in- 
tolerable. Is it not time to relinquish that hope? 
You have exhausted the virtue, for that purpose, 
that resided in compacts and platforms, in the 
suppression of the right of petition and in arbi- 
trary parliamentary laws, and in abnegation of 
Federal authority over the subject of Slavery 
within the National Territories. Will you even 
thenend thedebate by binding Kansaswith chains 
for the safety of Slavery in Missouri ? Even then 
you must give over Utah to Slavery, to make 
it secure and permanent in Kansas ; and you 
must give over Oregon and Washington to both 
Polygamy and Slavery, so as to guarantee 
equally the one "^nd the other of those peculiar 
domestic institutions in Utah ; and so yon must 
go on sacrificing on the shrine of peace Terri- 
tory after Territory, until the prevailing na- 
tionality of freedom and of virtue shall be lost, 
and the vieious anomalies, which you have 
hitherto vainly hoped Almighty Wisdom would 
remove from among you without your own con- 
currence, shall become the controlling elements 
in the Republic. He who found a river in his 
path, and sat down for the flood to pass away, 
was not more unwise than he who expects the 
agitation of Slavery to cease while the love of 
Freedom animates the bosoms of mankind. The 
solemnity of the occasion draws over our heads 
that cloud of disunion which always arises when- 
ever the subject of Slavery is agitated. Still, 
tiie debate goes en, more ardently, earnestly and 



mmiiii 

016 089 330 8 1 



angrily than eve 
merely logic, reproach, menace, retort and deti-~ 
ance, but sabres, rifles and cannon. Do you look 
through this incipient war quite to the end, and 
see there peace, quiet and harmony, on the sub- 
ject of Slavery ? If so, pray enlighten me, and 
show me how long the way is which leads to 
that repose. The Free States are loyal, and 
they always will remain so. Their foothold on 
this Continent is firm and sure. Their ability to 
maintain themselves, unaided, under the presen-t 
jConstitution is established. The Slave States, 
also, have been loyal hitherto, and I hope and 
trust they ever may remain so. But if disunion 
could ever come, it would come in the form of a 
secession of the slaveholding States; and it 
would come, then, when the slaveholding power, 
which is already firmly established on the Gulf 
of Mexico, and extends a thousand miles north- 
ward along both banks of the Mississippi, should 
Lave fixed its grappling-irons upon the fountains 
of the Missouri and the slopes of the Rocky 
Mountains. Then that power would either be 
intolerably supreme in this Republic,'or it would 
strike for independence or exclusive domination. 
Then tlie Free States and the Slave States of 
the Atlantic, divided and warring with each 
other, would disgust the Free States of the Paci- 
fic, and they would have abundant cause and 
justification for withdrawing from a Union pro- 
ductive no longer of peace, safety, and liberty 
to themselves, and no longer holding up the che- 
rished hopes of mankind. Mr. President, the 
Continental Congress of 1787, on resigning the 
trust, which it had discharged with signal fideli- 
ty, into the hands of the authorities elected un- 
der the new Constitution, and in taking leave of 
their constituents, addressed to the people of 
the United States this memorable injunction: 
" Let it never be forgotten that the cause of the 
United States has always been the cause of hu- 
man nature." Let us recall that precious moni- 
tion ; let us examine the ways which wo Lave 
pursued hitherto, under the light thrown upon 
them by that instruction. We shall find, in doing 
so, tliat we Lave forgotten moral right in the 
pursuit of material greatness, and we shall ceaise 
henceforth from practising upon ourselves the 
miserable delusion that we can safely extend 
Empire, when we shall have become reckless of 
the obligations of Eternal Justice, and faithless 
to the interests of Universal Freedom. 

Mr. Clay obtained the floor, and the Senate 
adjourned 



LIBRAR' 




0^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




Hill 

016 089 330 8 • 



